Harry slowly made his way down the stairs, his stomach churning as he realized he was supposed to be meeting Ginny in the entrance hall in about five minutes. He had told himself that he wasn't going to be late, but panicking at the last second he had made the mistake of turning to his guardians for help or advice.
They had given him neither.
Harry couldn't decide whether they were too involved in....whatever it was they were working on, or if they just really didn't know how to help him. Harry had always thought that Sirius had been the sort of "Lady Killer" of the Marauders in his day, charming women left and right. But when Harry had asked him about it, he had just waved the question away, embarrassed and told him he was too young for such stories.
Right.
Going faster, he made it to the entrance hall right as he saw Ron and Hermione walking out hand in hand. They turned and saw him, Hermione giving him a wave and smile and Ron raising a warning eyebrow at him. Harry, recognizing the warning of an overprotective brother, nodded once slightly before the couple turned away and continued on their way. Harry’s eye followed them down the steps and across the lawn towards the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade.
A sharp tap landed on his shoulder and he whirled around, grinning when he saw who it was.
“Looking for me?” Ginny said with a smile.
Proud of himself for not blushing, Harry smiled and nodded. “How’d you know?”
She shrugged. “Lucky guess.”
Harry nervously held out his arm for her again and she took it without hesitation.
----
Feeling more confidence and relaxed, Harry found that going on a date with Ginny wasn’t really that different from what they had been doing for the past week. Their conversation wasn’t forced at all, but natural and easy, both of them laughing often and smiling most of the time. No wonder Hermione and Ron had been suspicious.
They were both walking down the center street of Hogsmeade, carrying one shopping bag each (they had stopped by the twin’s new store in Hogsmeade and Harry had insisted on buying something for Ginny), on their way to the Three Broomsticks for a well deserved Butterbeer and to thaw out their freezing toes. Harry held the door open for her and the warm air blasted in their faces as they went to find a table for two.
Luckily, or unluckily (Harry couldn’t really decided), Ron and Hermione flagged them down as soon as they took two steps.
“Harry! Gin! Over here!”
Harry sent an apologetic look over to Ginny but she just smiled and dragged him over to the table, both of them plopping across from Ron and Hermione who were halfway through their own drinks.
“How goes it, you two?” Hermione said with a grin.
“Could say the same for you,” Harry said with a grin, glancing over at Ron. “Got something right there, mate.” He motioned to his cheek and Ron blushed, reaching up to wipe away the lipstick mark.
“Since when did you wear makeup, Hermione?” Ginny asked slyly. “Or is little Ronnikens already cheating on you?”
“Oh, Lavender and Parvati cornered me this morning because they heard I was finally going out with Ron,” she said, not looking up at them. Harry saw Ron’s hand shift under the table and grip onto Hermione’s hand.
Ginny shuddered. “I’m lucky those two aren’t in my year. I’d probably never hear the end of it.” She blushed right after she said this, as if she felt she had said too much.
“What’s that?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow towards her, Ron and Hermione looking on with interest now that the conversational spotlight wasn’t on them anymore.
Ginny blushed and looked down. “Nothing...”
Harry let it go, but it seemed that brothers weren’t so kind.
“Never hear the end of what, Gin?” Ron asked, leaning forward in a menacing brotherly fashion.
Though Ginny was not the only girl in a family of 6 boys for nothing.
She looked up at him with a deathly glare. “None of your business Ron!”
Harry chuckled as Ron cowered under her gaze, which was exactly the wrong thing to do.
“Think it’s funny, do you?” Ginny said darkly at Harry and before he could say anything, she had dashed out the door, back into the cold, January weather.
Harry and Ron’s astonished faces seemed to amuse Hermione who started chuckling and took another sip of her Butterbeer.
“Want to write the book now, Hermione?” Ron asked, almost pleadingly. Hermione, though, looked confused.
“You know, back in fifth year, ‘Translating Mad Things Girls Do So Guys Can Understand Them’?” Harry supplied.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him and Harry felt himself faltering under her gaze. How in bloody Merlin did girls do that?
“Well, my first bit of advice would be for you to get off your lazy arse and stop her before she gets even madder,” Hermione said calmly.
Harry’s eyes flew open. “She wants me to run after her?”
Hermione shrugged and continued to sip her butterbeer. Harry turned to Ron who looked just as clueless.
“Look, mate, I’d do what she says,” Ron whispered, thought Harry knew Hermione could still hear. “She usually knows what she’s talking about.”
As Hermione reached over to smack Ron, Harry slipped out of the booth and out the door, the cold air chilling him to the bone, but he hardly noticed. His eyes flickered over the crowd of students walking all around, looking for the familiar bright red hair among them. He finally spotted her making her way towards Hogwarts beside the lake. Pulling on his gloves, Harry rushed over, trying not to smash into too many shoppers and reached her just as she stopped walking and was staring over the ice covered lake.
“Hey,” he said softly.
She spun quickly, not having heard him come up and he saw a few trails of tears down her cheeks that were red from the bitter wind. She turned away, wiping at her face and sniffing softly.
“Hey.” Her back was to him.
Harry rattled his brain for the right thing to say.
“So, what was that back there?”
Her shoulders slumped and she hugged herself, still staring towards the lake. “Nothing...just silly...”
“Hey,” he reached over and laid a hand on her shoulder, turning her towards him, “you can tell me. We’re friends, right?”
She smiled slightly. “Yes.”
“You like being friends with me?”
She sniffed and wiped at her eyes again. “Yes, it’s very nice.”
“Oh so formal are we?” Harry said with a raised eyebrow. “Come on, Gin. What’s wrong?”
She finally looked up at him and sighed. “You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?”
“If my date is crying for some reason I think it’s my responsibility to see what’s wrong,” Harry reasoned, thinking how good that last sentence had sounded in his ears. It worked too. Her face lighted up a bit.
“You think of me as your date?” Her voice was soft.
Harry blushed. “Well, yes. Isn’t that what this is? I’ll admit I’m not very experienced and the only other time was a complete disaster.”
She giggled and seemed to relax even more. “Yes, I heard about that.”
“So tell me Ginny.”
She hesitated. “You’ll think I’m overreacting.”
“Probably not.”
She looked up at him, surprised. “What?”
“Well, if it’s something about Death Eaters or Voldemort I won’t think your overreacting,” Harry reasoned, hoping he was saying the right thing.
Thankfully, she smiled.
“That was a good answer,” she said bluntly.
“Huh?”
“Most people would have said, ‘No, I won’t think you’re overreacting,’ but they really will.” She looked at him closely. “You’re very honest.”
“Well, thanks for that, Gin,” he remarked dryly, “but we’re here to talk about you.”
She waved the thought away. “No, I really was overacting, I’m fine.”
Harry didn’t look convinced.
“Honestly, I was just worrying about something that I didn’t need to.”
“Can you tell me what it was?”
“Maybe sometime.”
“Okay, fair enough.”
They stood in an awkward silence for a moment before Ginny turned back to Hogsmeade.
“You want to go back?” Harry asked, hoping she would say no.
“No.”
“Me either.”
“Well, we could try ice skating again?” Harry suggested hopefully.
She turned to him with a grin. “Race you there.”
Ginny made it to the ice first and slipped and slid around while Harry carefully made his way out to her. They got into their old routine of trying to pull each other down on the ice which resulted in plenty of bruised bottoms and egos.
A half hour later the score was still tied rather tightly and Harry was chasing Ginny towards the edge of the lake, a determined look on his face. Luckily for him, she was laughing so hard that she lost her footing, falling hard to the ground right when he reached her. Unluckily for him, she grabbed his cloak and brought him down with her. He landed hard on the ice, squirming to get up again as she was. They both managed to stand up again and managed to make it to the edge of the frozen lake, but this time Harry was holding onto Ginny and they both lost balance at the same time, Harry falling first and Ginny landing on top of him, thankfully the snow covered ground now cushioning the impact.
Exhausted, they both were laughing so hard that they didn’t move for a second until they realized how close they were.
Their laughs died down and their faces ended up inches apart.
Harry’s heart was beating fast. Did kisses always happen this unexpectedly? For before he knew it, he had closed the gap between their mouths, his warm lips caressing hers gently and her scent filling his mind as he realized exactly what he was currently doing...but this felt so...nice. She wasn’t pulling away either, so he felt no reason to. He hardly noticed the cold snow under them anymore as his body suddenly became very hot and he felt his mind thinking nothing about the weather. All his thoughts became centered on the redhead who was currently kissing him.
Lack of air forced them apart and, for a moment, they just stared at each other, surprisingly, neither of them was blushing, just staring.
“Wow,” Harry finally said softly.
“Yeah.”
----
Thinking it best to enter the common room separately (as they had both heard Ron arguing with Hermione about what they were currently doing), Harry said a quick goodbye to Ginny, and headed to the kitchens to get a light snack, as he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast (and even then his stomach had been churning so bad he wasn’t sure if he actually ate anything.) Tickling the pear, he pulled open the portrait and was surprised to see the last two people on earth he wanted to talk to at that moment.
“Harry! See, Remus, of course he knows how to get into the kitchens! Who doesn’t?”
Harry forced a grin on his face and went to sit down next to his Godfather and his friend. Both were nursing bottles of something that looked suspiciously like Firewhiskey. There were some more worry lines in their face that Harry had noticed, but he could tell by their relaxed posture that they had come here for a well deserved break.
He grimaced at the silence that followed and could just feel both their eyes burning into him, begging and pleading to know what had happened on his “date”.
Well, Harry thought, they wouldn’t help me, why should I tell them anything?
This thought in mind, Harry accepted a plate of sandwiches brought over by an excited house elf and began eating as if nothing was wrong.
“So?” Sirius finally blurted out.
Harry tried to act naive but he was never really good at that. “Huh? What?”
“Your date with Ginny, Harry,” Remus supplied. “How’d it go?”
Harry shrugged and took another bite of the sandwich.
“Hey, why are you guys still here anyway?” He asked, hoping for a change in subject as he knew they weren’t buying it.
“Harry, I want you to know I’m mortally offended.” Harry looked up at Sirius who did look mortally offended but the twinkle in his eyes gave it away. “You won’t even tell me about your first date?”
“I did tell you about my first date,” Harry pointed out. “Though it was rather short and there was no snogging involved so I understand why you overlook that.”
“Pft, that Cho girl was no good,” Sirius scoffed, taking another swig of whatever was in the bottle in front of him. “Now Ginny, that girls got potential.”
“She just reminds you of Lily,” Remus argued.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Sirius said with a shrug.
Harry smiled at the thought. If his mom really was anything like Ginny, he could understand why he would chase after he for so long, even go so far as to change himself over completely.
“You’re going back into the reminiscing stage,” Sirius pointed out to Harry who looked over at him quickly.
“What?”
“Whenever you think about your parents your eyes kinda defocus and you look like any minute you’re gonna stop breathing.”
Harry’s forehead furrowed. “Really?”
“Harry,” Remus cut in quickly. “We need to talk to you about something.”
Harry’s heart involuntarily clenched.
“Oh that was a good leeway, Remus,” Sirius scoffed and drained the last of his bottle, standing up and looking towards Harry.
“Something else?” Harry said softly, looking at his Godfather with dread.
“It’s important Harry,” Remus replied, coming up on Sirius’ other side. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing like last time.”
“Well, it is something like last time,” Sirius said quickly.
“But hopefully it won’t make you upset.”
“Hopefully?” Harry asked, getting up and putting the forgotten sandwich down.
“You’ll see Harry,” Sirius soothed him. “Let’s go to Dumbledore’s office this time. He’ll help us.”
Having no idea what these words meant, Harry followed Padfoot and Remus out of the kitchens, his mind reeling with any and all the different things they could be able to reveal to him.
----
A/N: just fyi - I submit these chapters as quick as I can, since I already have a lot of this story written. Please be patient as they go through the submission process.